I do think the schedulers at Maritz are nice and all...but sometimes I just find it funny how surprised some are at the incentive I need. I'm sorry, but no, I won't drive five hours round trip for $50. They have to get that, right? Do they just play dumb???

Snuffy, I think some of them just don't understand the expenses we have and what we must have to cover them and make a living wage. I had a discussion last week with a scheduler who called me about the $5.00 GS inventory shops.

I explained it might be somewhat different if they were being done along with the regular shop but as a standalone they were impossible. I talked about time on site, time on the computer (along with how slow their website is), time to set up the folder, track payment, and time to drive. I remarked that with the time totaled up it wouldn't surprise me to be more than an hour per shop.

She thought altogether it wouldn't take more than 30 minutes per shop. I said, "Well, that would be $10 per hour income and I can't cover expenses with that and come out ahead." She SO did not get it. She told me about one shopper who did fifteen of those that morning, to which I replied I couldn't reach fifteen in one morning if I just drove by and didn't stop. Not only are we not on the same page sometimes, we are not reading the same book from the same library.

You are so right. I had them calling me for a large client and it was hours of driving each way. I said I wanted a $90 incentive and I got a lecture about wasting their time and how I was wasting my time and there was just no way they were even going to consider it.

5 days later I had a message on my voicemail about those shops, $90 would be fine.

Yesterday they called me for the $5 inventory shops and I said that same thing as you, just not worth my time to do them alone. Apparently someone else didn't think so though because they're gone now.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2015 08:34PM by jpgilham.

Before beginning mystery shopping how many people were ICs or in business for themselves? Employee schedulers are most often the ones with no real understanding of our lives. They spend maybe 30 to 60 minutes commuting both ways to a job, get paid a set amount for their 8 hours work and deposit a paycheck every two weeks. If the job pays $10 an hour they probably net $8, file a 1040EZ and get a tax return at the end of the year. They also may have paid vacation, sick leave and all or part of their health insurance paid. Without knowing anything about working as an IC, or worse being misinformed and believing ICs don't have to report all their income, why wouldn't they think that offer of $5 for 30 minutes work sounds about right? So not necessarily dumb, but definitely uneducated.

Clearly some schedulers think we do this for fun and the money is just a bonus.

They called twice earlier this week. Why will I not drive over 100 miles for one and 50 another direction for $10?

You are absolutely right, they must think that....

@89lulalula89 wrote:

Clearly some schedulers think we do this for fun and the money is just a bonus.

Sometimes others believe I do this for entertainment because I'm elderly and bored, or they believe I do it out of desperation because I'm elderly and starving. Not so, not bored and not starving, but I am here for the Ka Ching factor. If I can't make money I have plenty of other things I want to do, and one of the main things I enjoy doing the most now and then is nothing. But, offer me interesting money and watch me perk right up.

Site Inspection shops: GINORMOUS incentives!! Got this today. Looked. That bonus is EIGHT dollars for $100 miles.

Guess you jumped all over eight or ten of those.

jpgilham, the standalone inventory shops are mostly gone here too and I'm good with it. The more of them I do the more I lose so the less of them I do the better off I am. Just because a shop is listed does not make it desirable.

I have worked for them for a year and had a disappointing situation in the last 2 days, 2/25 and 2/26. I have done a lot of stations for them and always have found their incentives good as the gas station jobs are extensive. On 2/25 I was doing a large number of stations for another company and a scheduler called and asked if I could do a station approximately an hour from my house. She asked where I was going I said $35.00 and she asked superior and came back with $14.00. I turned it down and the next day it is on board with $34.50 incentive. I am a diligent shopper, have never cancelled or been late on a job but apparently it means nothing. Kind of a slap in the face. Am looking at this company quite differently today. Oh well lesson learned!

I love the Inventory jobs provided they are able to be done as a combo with the regular audits. I have observed that their scheduling of the Inventory shops was not done timely enough in many cases to allow for completing together. Sort of short sighted in my opinion. At the current price they would need to be sitting next to each other like a neighborhood of row houses in order to make a profit.

I have worked for Maritz for 6 years and I like other shoppers have never cancelled a shop
or been late. I used to be notified by several teams when they had shops in my area, but
now they get posted and taken by other shoppers. I have noticed all of the schedulers
that I used to talk to are gone. They were probably poorly paid, and finally got sick of the
low pay and BS. Luckily, I am in the position that I don't need the work anyone, I am
semi-retired and have a pretty good retirement income, but the extra money was nice.
I guess it's true Maritz just has no loyality to it's contractors, that's really a shame.
I think in the long run this will hurt this MSC. I am sure they will still find folks to
do the jobs, but the integrity of the MSC is gone in IMO.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2015 04:31AM by txguitar.

The schedulers at Maritz have been some of the least informed of any who have ever solicited my work. I think Maritz has hired a foreign company to schedule some or all of their shops because the calls typically come from a call center with lots of chatter in the background and the caller speaking with a foreign accent. I have confirmed the Philippines as one source for their scheduling. I believe another call may have come from India or other country known for call center operations. And when the scheduler called from Maritz's home office in the continental USA, they demonstrated no research into distances in my area, asking if I could perform a shop which turned out to be 800 miles away. They have employed senior citizens to do their outcalls / solicitations for shoppers and those individuals showed little experience as well as zero ability to negotiate shop fees. Maritz in general hardly ever pays a bonus (in my experience) or PAD when travel is required and seems to operate as if they are the only MSC in the industry and don't have to compete / offer competitive wages. Some of their reports can be ridiculously long, repetitive, redundant, and are not as user-friendly as they could be. In general, if you accept an assignment with Maritz, be prepared for a long report, lots of photos (when required), little back-office support, and at best low-to-average but rarely attractive pay.

I love Maritz. Every time someone calls, it reminds me of how it was talking to my grandmother (in a fond way, of course). But, the company churns through so many phone schedulers that I know negotiating a bonus is going to be a painful ordeal. Sometimes I will politely explain that I already know they would not be able to pay me enough for me to accept a job.

What makes it painful is when you try to explain what has to happen to make the proposed route work. Apparently toll roads don't exist in Kansas City; neither does traffic. I actually have had to explain that yes, the shop is only 22 miles from my house, but because we are "in season" right now, it would take me an hour and a half of driving each way, dodging snowbirds. I can't spend 3+ hours on a $10 shop.

Enough ranting, though. Here's what works for me: If I think there is a remote chance my offer would be accepted, I will note the shops the scheduler is offering, and promise to call back with an offer. When I call back, I firmly provide my offer, letting them know the offer is firm and not open for negotiation. I tell them that, if they accept the offer, to assign the shops and leave me a voice message letting me know.

Appreciate all the feedback from my last post. Schedulers don't call anymore as the big thing is email and if I do let them know what bonus you want and then they try to get someone else and 3 days later offer the shop for less. My problem with this is I work for other companies and have already scheduled shops and then they are irritated because you did not take the shop. I have done these gas stations for 2 other companies that used to do them and both of those companies lost their contracts and now Maritz has it. Generally speaking I have found going cheap is not always the best way to go so I have developed relationships with other companies and returned to a company I did tons of stations for and are paying good commissions so this company takes precedence over others.

I have had alot of success with Maritz. But because of the nature of the business things can change quickly. Last year it was easier negotiating bonuses this year not so much. In my area I just watch the board and when the bonuses become acceptable I will self assign. I do like the schedulers.

x



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/2015 12:10AM by MDavisnowell.

I have had mixed experiences with this company. Some good, but enough bad recently to choose not to work for them anymore. They would have to make some rather serious changes before I take another job for them.... not worth the frustration for me. It sucks because the jobs were easy, reasonable pay and the reports weren't hard, but the other website issues beyond my control and shopper support was horrible.

What's up with the codes? Weird! Don't like codes... Don't like Geo verify... Rewardables! But, I see the usefulness to the client, so cool! On Maritz, I must say, I don't do codes so don't have to deal with them.

All my Maritz calls have been from the ladies and gentlemen here. I haven't run across anything from the Philippines or elsewhere. Also, my relationships with them have been good and they have given me no reason to believe I am not a valued shopper. We did not come to terms on the $5.00 GS inventory shops but no problem, I get more work than I need.

Call Center? I doubt it. The inventory shops are only good in 2 instances. Same time as the Audit as previously stated. Or, if another shop takes you by the inventory location anyways...

Their systems are so convoluted that even they don't understand how shoppers are supposed successfully make requests or get incentives approved. I got a call yesterday that I had a gas shop on my "requested" board (didn't even know there was a requested board), and she wanted to know if I still wanted to take it. I told her that I went through a long process of creating a route for myself only to determine at the very end that each job had a different day allowed to shop. There was only one day where I could do them all together and that day wouldn't work for me.

She seemed confused and began explaining the monthly/quarterly shop process, which I don't particularly care about. I just wanted to know right off the bat when I could shop each location before jumping through hoops.

Then I mentioned the fact that I'm only interested in bonused shops because none of these gas shops are worth $11 and she promptly ended the call.

I like the money that Maritz gives me when it's reasonable, but they lack organization in a big way. Hoping this new association with CX fixes a lot of the frustrations that their current system brings.

Sometimes I have a hard time understanding why you all have problems. I haven't had any of these issues. They call me and ask me how much I"d need to go to a particular location, I tell them, I get a call back either trying to negotiate or accepting my offer. Simple.
Yeah the website is a little slow but nothing really worth mentioning. It works just fine, even uploading pictures doesn't have me wanting to throw my laptop out the window.
All in all this company has treated me very well. I've made a couple of mistakes and I took responsibility for them and went back and got what was needed. It didn't keep them from giving me good bonuses when they need something done.
Sometimes when I have the time I grab a bunch of stuff that is close by right off the board and I get it done. Thats my way of treating them as well as they treat me.

I try to be proactive. I find things on the board that are bonused (just not enough to work for me) and make a route out of them. I call them and tell them what I'd like to do. They tell me to email them to bla bla bla teambox. I do and I never hear back. I've done hundreds of shops for them. I know some of the ladies. They're nice but they always seem confused and lack any kind of control or autonomy to made decisions.
I don't want to email. It takes too long and I run the risk of losing one or two shops in the route that make the route worth doing (this happened this week). Why is it so hard to call them and speak to someone who can actually make a decision on incentives?

I understand they don't want to field tons of calls for 1 or 2 jobs, but I'm calling about taking 20 or 30 at a time. They should welcome that kind of call.

They don't have the flexibility we do. They don't have the authority you wish they had. Your logic does not affect their program. Keep this up and I predict a skin rash in your future.

Hoju--- I could have written that myself, thanks for that, you described my experience totally!! Also MDavisnowell, you are absolutely 100% correct! Fortunately, it was not a skin rash for me but a company I returned to, to do stations for and they have been very pleasant and co operative and the bonus was great with 1/4 of the work. I was taking things to personally, as I was one of many shoppers, they are one of many companies. I will continue to take shops if it fits into my schedule and the bonus is good as I will do for all the companies I work for. I am thankful for this forum as it put things into perspective!

My favorite Maritz experience was explaining to them that another MSC pays 33% more (regular rate, not bonused) for the exact same job and the exact same client, and that's why I'm not doing those shops for Maritz. They didn't seem to believe me. Maybe they thought I was trying to negotiate, but I wasn't.

I don't know why the other MSC pays more, but once I discovered this there was no way I'd agree to do the same shop for Maritz for less...duh!

I've worked with some pretty awesome schedulers at this MSC. Sure, the company is technologically behind the times and yes there are some schedulers who don't seem to understand what they are doing, but I think the pros very much outweight the cons here.